A code division multiple access (CDMA) or a wide-band CDMA (WBCDMA) receiver may comprise a rake receiver, which may include multiple receiving elements, called fingers, which de-spread a received signal. A rake combiner may receive data or information from the fingers to form soft bits, which may then be stored in memory for processing.
The transfer of information in the reception path, after the rake combiner, may comprise processing bits. Along a reception data path in a WBCDMA system, for example, different processing techniques may be performed. For example, the data transmitted may be rearranged to a random order by one or more interleavers. Accordingly, at some point in the reception path, the reception data may be reordered to the correct, original order by using one or more deinterleavers. Frames and blocks of data may be formed and the data may be processed by different processing techniques, such as but not limited to, channel decoding.
The number of bits associated with the data (soft bits) at the rake combiner may be some large number n. The large number of bits may be required for data precision and dynamic range during the different processing procedures. However, processing a large number of bits may be costly and time-consuming in terms of data management, memory storage, and processing hardware and software, for example.
It will be appreciated that for simplicity and clarity of illustration, elements shown in the figures have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements may be exaggerated relative to other elements for clarity. Further, where considered appropriate, reference numerals may be repeated among the figures to indicate corresponding or analogous elements.